Exhibition time: 30 11 2023–23 12 2023
Opening: November 30 | 18:00
Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas, Lithuania)
In the solo exhibition "For Grown-up Children" Arvydas Žalpys presents a decade of video footage. It is a journey around the globe, trying to find The Little Prince. "In two projections, I depict life as if through the eyes of a child. There are shots of me descending from the top of the earth to the bottom; there's a lot of gloomy sky, but it's undefined and unreachable, and the sea is just around the corner, its waves crashing on the shore…”
Arvydas Žalpys notes, that even then, in the forties, Exupéry talked about the disconnection between people, yet nothing has changed. “I miss the connection, the sincerity; now everyone wants to be the most important."
As the artist travels, he seeks to immerse himself in a world of naive but sincere fantasy, calling on us to forget everything and allow ourselves to fall into a non-existent reality. He invites passengers, uncaring which direction the train is heading, to become thrill-seeking children once again: pressing their faces against the windows and imagining unimaginable landscapes. At the bottom of the earth, the waves bounce off the shore, and the sun rises from above.
"As I glance around, I can't help but wonder if the prince has also traveled to this place, pondering the same questions as I am. There's this persistent feeling that he's close by, yet our paths haven't crossed. If we would return to those naive beliefs, that there are people living in an upside-down world, we might rekindle the warmth in our relationships. The ability to find beauty in the world around us seems to have faded, but a change in perspective might unveil a whole new realm."
“We all must have dreams of some kind. For me, this is a personal attempt to escape that desire to be special and important that has occupied us. We should have stopped a long time ago. I wanted to go back to that naive environment. I'm not afraid of being ridiculous, I'm not trying to blow anyone away. It all came from a lack of sincerity.”
The exhibition is sponsored by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Lithuanian Artists' Association.
